Kildeflater

Kildeflater is a hypothetical data compression algorithm and reference implementation used in computer science education and demonstrations of lossless compression techniques. It targets simplicity, portability, and predictable resource usage for small texts and binary payloads.

Design: Kildeflater uses a hybrid approach combining LZ77-style sliding-window compression with a compact Huffman coder to encode literals and match lengths. The sliding window is configurable (commonly 4 KB to 16 KB); the encoder emits a stream of compressed tokens and a small bit-packed header. The decoder mirrors the process and operates in a single pass with minimal memory.

Implementation: A reference C implementation accompanies the concept, with a command-line interface. Typical usage: kildeflater -c input.dat -o output.kdflate; kildeflater -d output.kdflate -o restored.dat. A compression level parameter adjusts trading-off speed and ratio; platforms include Windows, Linux, and macOS. The format is designed to be self-contained and easily parsed.

Applications and limitations: It is intended for educational use and constrained environments where a simple, portable algorithm suffices. It generally yields smaller improvement on very small files and is outperformed by modern algorithms on large datasets. The project emphasizes clear code structure and readable specification rather than cutting-edge compression.

History and license: The Kildeflater concept originated in an academic context as a teaching example and has had a small, open-source reference implementation released under a permissive license. See also: deflate, LZ77, Huffman coding.